Russian Government and Russian Reforms

Published:Pravda TrudaNo. 14, September 26, 1913.

      Signed:Observer.

      Published according to thePravda Trudatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 19,

      pages392-393.Translated:The Late George HannaTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Thereis a little magazine calledGrazhdanin[1]compiled by Prince Meshchersky. The Prince, who
has been through fire and water in the various higher civil service
“spheres” of St. Petersburg, usually preaches in this magazine the most
reactionary things.

Themagazine is interesting primarily because in it the talkative
Prince is continually divulging the secrets of the higher administration of
Russia. For Russia is actually administered by those landowner dignitaries
in whose society Prince Meshchersky moved and is still moving. And they
actually do administer Russia in exactly the way, in exactly the spirit, by
exactly the means advised, assumed and suggested by Prince Meshchersky.

Inthe second place, the magazine is interesting because its courtly
editor, confident that it will neverreach the people, often
exposes the Russian administration in the most ruthless manner.

Hereare two interesting admissions made by this princely dignitary:

“Avery typical phenomenon,” he writes. “From time to
   time people come to us from France, or Belgium, or England, nice people who
   show a sympathy for Russia and the Russians, they stay in luxurious
   circumstances in a hotel, submit their letters of introduction to some
   official or another ... and quite soon, in perhaps ten days or so, these
   newly arrived foreigners are received by some minister and are given hopes
   of receiving some concession, which they take off home with them.... Then
   back they come again and a week later they have already acquired a
   concession somewhere in Russia and are counting up the foreseeable profits
   with such energy that they have dreams of millions.”

“Avery typical phenomenon,” he writes. “From time to
   time people come to us from France, or Belgium, or England, nice people who
   show a sympathy for Russia and the Russians, they stay in luxurious
   circumstances in a hotel, submit their letters of introduction to some
   official or another ... and quite soon, in perhaps ten days or so, these
   newly arrived foreigners are received by some minister and are given hopes
   of receiving some concession, which they take off home with them.... Then
   back they come again and a week later they have already acquired a
   concession somewhere in Russia and are counting up the foreseeable profits
   with such energy that they have dreams of millions.”

Thatis what Prince Meshchersky writes. By way of exception he writes
the truth. Features of Asiatic primitiveness, governmental graft, the
schemes of financiers who share their monopoly incomes with highly-placed
officials, are still boundlessly strong in Russian capitalism. When our
Narodniks fight, and fight with good reason, against such disgusting and
shameless swindles, they often regard it as a war against capitalism. Their
mistake is obvious. They are actually fightingfor the
democratisationof capitalism.

“WhenI was abroad,” the arch-reactionary Prince writes
   in an other place, “I was in contact with people in different walks of
   life.... I do not remember that any sort of social or state reforms ever
   constituted the subject of the conversation....  I read the newspapers ...
   but found no articles about reforms.... As soon as I crossed the frontier
   and reached home, I found the reverse; I took up the first Russian
   newspaper I came across and on the first, the second and even the third
   page there were articles about some sort of reforms.”

“WhenI was abroad,” the arch-reactionary Prince writes
   in an other place, “I was in contact with people in different walks of
   life.... I do not remember that any sort of social or state reforms ever
   constituted the subject of the conversation....  I read the newspapers ...
   but found no articles about reforms.... As soon as I crossed the frontier
   and reached home, I found the reverse; I took up the first Russian
   newspaper I came across and on the first, the second and even the third
   page there were articles about some sort of reforms.”

Correctlyobserved. The bourgeoisie does not need reforms in Europe. In
Russia they are necessary. The princely dignitary cannot understand the
reason for this difference—just as some wise people cannot understand
that the strongly anti–reformist tactics of the workers are justified
because of the bourgeoisie’s need for reforms.

[1]Grazhdanin(The Citizen)—a reactionary magazine
published in St. Petersburg from 1872 to 1914. From the 1880s it was the
organ of the extreme monarchists and was edited by Prince Meshchersky and
financed by the government. It had a small circulation but was influential
in bureaucratic circles.